I was reading a New York Times article, "A Silver Thimble in Her Fist" by Alice Truax, and she brought up an interesting point that The God of Small Things is actually an "Anti-Bildungsroman "because Estha and Rahel are never able to live a proper childhood or experience a genuine coming-of-age. Though the twins have escapist techniques to remove themselves from the family's overall discontent -- Rahel's imagination and Estha's love for Elvis Presley and The Sound of Music -- their childhood wonder is exploited early in their lives. The catalyst of this loss of innocence is Estha's molestation by the Orangedrink Lemondrink man. After this event, Estha's outlook on life becomes much too pessimistic for a child of his age, however, because Estha is cognizant of the unpredictability and horrors that life can bring he tries to protect Rahel's innocence. Estha's fear of the Orangedrink Lemondrink man coming to find him in Ayemenem leads to him trying to protect Rahel by crossing the river to the History House -- the scene in which Sophie Mol dies. Sophie Mol's death is also a factor of the twins' loss of innocence, but not only because of the responsibility and guilt they feel. Because Baby Kochamma blames Velutha for kidnapping the twins -- leading to Velutha being beat to death -- the twins also feel responsibility for Velutha's death. The God of Small Things as an "Anti-Bildungsroman" brings to light the dangers of the exploitation of childhood and the effects it can have on a family.
NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/970525.25truaxt.html
I admire your use of an outside article, Stephanie. I too talked about the twins loss of innocence with the death of Sophie Mol. I think Sophie Mol, a young and beautiful character, is herself an innocent child, so with her death, innocence died. However, even more than the value of Sophie Mol as a character, is the impact being witness and partially responsible for a death, no matter of who, is what rips the innocence from the twins (like you said). Unrelated, but I also think Ammu's harsh words to the twins had to do with their leaving the Ayemenen house along with the Orangedrink Lemondrink man.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Steph and Elizabeth. I think the children lose their faith in humanity throughout the novel. They come to find that the world is not as safe as they believe. Ammu is fearful of their blind trust, which causes her to lash out at them. The twins learn throughout the book that not only can their loved ones not fully protect them, but they cannot protect their loved ones either. To quote the book, they loved Velutha and Ammu to death. This is a terrifying realization and in Estha's case, causes him to stop talking.
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